


The Red Golem

by MadisonRoseNolus



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Assassins & Hitmen, Between Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul: re, Changed ghoul, F/M, Ghouls, I'm still working on the details, Kagune (Tokyo Ghoul), Oops, Sort Of, What-If, and now these tags are just me explaining why it's not great writing, back on track, becoming something else, if Kaneki had never become Haise, it's really more about Touka, probably going to rewrite this at some point, still ship it, trauma (duh)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 07:00:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19145911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadisonRoseNolus/pseuds/MadisonRoseNolus
Summary: It's been several years since Kaneki was seen taking Hide towards the CCG, and since then he has returned to a new organization of ghouls intent on bringing about an understanding from the CCG. In order to protect his remaining friends, he became increasingly cold towards them, especially Touka, pushing her away and into a safer city, or so he had thought.Now the ongoing war between the CCG and ghouls rages on, and a new assassin has made an appearance on the scene. Rumor has it she's neither human or ghoul, but she's lethal and works on her own terms. what will happen when The Red Golem and Eye-Patch ghoul end up on the same mission to kill the lab director of a CCG funded experiment?





	The Red Golem

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first work on this site, so please be kind! I am totally aware there are a lot of discrepancies in this work, and probably some facts I just flat out got wrong from the show...I plan on rewriting this at some point to make it better but I wanted to see if anyone else was interested in this story line before I made it into something more, or if it should just stay in my own personal library. This story was one of those "I have to get it down on paper before I forget" things, so structurally it's not all there, but hey, I tried :)

“The Red Golem, that’s what they call you right?”  
She nodded hastily, as if she didn’t have time for such base questions as names. She didn’t really speak much anyways, so little that if any one of the members apart this squad were asked to describe her voice they’d be at a loss. At first he thought she might just have a shy personality trait, but the more time he’d spent on this mission with her he’d come to understand that she did it on purpose. Nobody had any inkling of who she really was, and she intended to keep it that way.

The Red Golem, as the public had dubbed her suited the clothes she chose to wear for missions and assignments. A red jumper of sorts that had no sleeves and a hood that appeared to be permanently up. She’d also covered her arms and legs in some sort of dark purple bandaging, which was more of a fashion choice than anything else as far as he could tell. Her face she covered with a red mask, and only a thin line of skin appeared between where the mask ended, her eyes appeared, and where her pitch black bangs fell too. Her hair was really the only defining feature she allowed visible, black as night, and rather long, she kept it in two long ties that hung out in front of her. Even her eyes were generic in that sense of being cold and conditioned.

  
Despite the lack of features she put on display, the general consensus of her was that she was very pretty. A notion that annoyed her venimently. She did not think of herself as pretty and thought that anyone else who thought different was a clear idiot. She was dangerous and that was the only feature that should matter to any other living being.

  
This mission was not one she’d intended on participating in, she was under no obligation to be active in such an operation, and when Mr. V had first posed the assignment to her, she’d scoffed and nearly left the dingy little backroom of the illegal gambling ring he ran as a hobby more than anything else. The memory of that conversation played back over in her mind again, followed with a twinge of guilt. No matter how hard she tried to shake off all and any emotions, they still hung around like an apple tree with far to much fruit she couldn’t pluck them all off so dozens were left to rot in her mind.

  
“It’s a simple job, no complications.”  
“Well wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace. No misinformed informants who decide to hang around a little too close to the job site again?”  
“No, that is only a mistake I will make once. Informants are too hard to come by to replace frequently anyways.” she smirked at that. The ridiculousness of that whole situation, she’d been given the job to kill the mob boss, and Mr. V’s informant had wandered around the corner whilst she’d been in the middle of the job. He’d been horrified, one of the few living creatures to witness what she really was, not human, nor ghoul, but something else, something much much worse. She’d thought she’d have to kill him, but he’d gone rather insane instead and now found himself located in a psychiatric ward in a different country.

“Well, then what is it?”  
“There is a CCG funded lab not far from here, the man who’s responsible for its creation is supposed to be making a public appearance there in three days. Him and his team are the target.”  
“I don’t do multiple takedowns in public.” she crossed her arms, he knew this, he wouldn’t be asking unless there was more to it.  
“You wouldn’t be working alone.”  
“I don’t play well with others.”  
“You don’t play well alone either.” he wasn’t wrong.  
“I still don’t do public executions. Team or no team.”  
“It wouldn’t be public, it--”  
“You just said that this guy would be making a public appearance there.”  
“Just listen,” she pursed her lips, she really despised being spoken to as a child. “After his public appearance he will be sitting for a dinner in a private wing of the lab, he’s to be joined by one journalist and the main supervising team of the lab to discuss further research methods and funding.”  
“I don’t want to be apart of it.” She stated bluntly. Crossing her arms, she leaned back from the table they sat at. She’d already made up her mind, the mission he was describing sounded to be more trouble than it’s worth, despite her hatred of the CCG and all things affiliated with it, she did have something of an inkling of self preservation, and more importantly fear. She’d spent nearly a year in one of those labs, and was in no rush to return to anything resembling one, not unless a specific scientist was on the menu to dispose of.  
“You didn’t let me finish.”

  
Just as that last word rolled from his pudgy mouth, a waiter placed a glass of dark crimson liquid in front of her, she swiftly picked it up and took a gulp, using the edge of her black sleeve to catch a bead of moisture as it rolled from the corner of her lips.

  
“I don’t understand why you still drink that stuff, you aren’t a ghoul anymore.”  
She smirked, “I do because I can, it’s the same principle that I pursue this job with.”

  
He made disturbed face. Mr. V had known her for two years, and she was his only assassin who seemed to genuinely enjoy her job, he’d not had to coerce her or blackmail her for use of her skills, she’d willingly participate in what jobs she deemed doable. On one hand, he loved having an employee like her, on the other, she terrified him. She was very smart, and very sly, and despite his best efforts, he’d never come upon her true identity, he only knew of her what she wanted him too, which to be fair was more than most. He knew that she was born a ghoul, that her childhood had some level of tragedy intertwined with it, she’d participated in the human world for most of her teenage years, but at 18 something happened where she was forced to leave.

He knew that she’d been scooped off the streets shortly after by a CCG member and instead of being sent to a prison for ghouls, was sent to a lab where she was made into what she was now. Although she’d never mentioned the finer details of her stay there, he’d heard through rumours that swirled in the dark corners of Tokyo that a female ghoul had been tortured for months at one of the labs, and the outcome had been something horrifying. He’d been quite sure that the female ghoul of those rumours was in fact the young woman who sat in front of him now. At 21 years old she was one of the most terrifying creatures he’d ever had the pleasure of meeting.

  
“You remember when I met you, picked you up off the streets from slaughtering small gangs that tried to attack you. Gave you a job, a purpose instead of just mindless killing. Have I ever steered you wrong?” his demeanor had changed, he knew something very intriguing that he was failing to mention to her, and she knew it.  
“No, I remember running into you and agreeing to follow assignments you gave to me so long as the hold my interest, which this does not.”  
“The lab that the meeting is taking place at is the same one that you were kept at.” there it was, the other half of the story that he’d been holding back. He knew she wouldn’t say no to it.  
“No.”  
“What?”  
“I won’t work with a team.”  
“You will if you want into that lab, gaining entrance requires a team.”

  
She could feel the corners of her lips tilting down. He knew her too well, and that was her fault. She couldn’t say no, this was it, her opportunity to get into the lab and find him, as much as she imagined to fear it. She’d thought of going on her own long before, but just as Mr. V had said, it was not a one person operation.  
“What team exactly?” he’d won, the cracks in her walls had made her just weak enough for him to coerce this one job out of her. It was an internal conflict, between wanting to get into that lab and wanting control.

  
“Ghouls. They’re a clean team. Worked with other employees of mine before.”  
“I’d suppose you trust them wholeheartedly to let me work with them. That or they’re expendable.” she brushed her long hair behind her shoulder.  
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t cause them any harm. They are part of a larger organization that would be rather pissed any of them were damaged by you.”  
“Larger organization?”  
“Something to do with fighting for ghouls to be allowed to live with the rest of us. It’s that ghoul who was in the news a few years back who leads part of it.”  
“The eye-patch ghoul?”  
“Yes, him. He’ll be leading the operation.”  
“I’m supposed to take orders from some power hungry ghoul? Yeah right. Why exactly are you loaning me out?”  
“This goes above my head. I was simply given an order to get you onboard. They requested you to join there operation along with several other employees.”  
So that’s why, he’d never tried to coerce her before, but his job and probably his life was on the line. So she relented. She wanted into that lab anyways. She shifted in her chair, crossing her legs and catching her heel on the table.  
“Fine, I’ll do it.” She removed herself from the chair, pulling her tight dress back down to midthigh after it rode up. She was already forming a plan in her head, get into the lab, manage to break off and find the section she was tortured in. He’d probably be there, and then she’d have her way with him.

 

Three days later she stood in her assassins clothing in front of a group of 8 ghouls. 4 of them including the eye-patch ghoul were apart of whatever movement Mr. V had spoken of, and the other 4 were other employees of Mr. V.

  
“We’ll be splitting into two groups, one led by myself and then, once I break off into the next ward of the lab…” The eye-patch ghoul continued. She wasn’t listening. It wasn’t like his briefing was going to apply to her shortly anyways, she had her own plan and it didn’t involve any of them. The gist of his instructions had placed her on his team, and that was as far as she’d listened. A few of the members had attempted to make conversation with her before they arrived at the lab. She’d only nod, there was no point in speaking, it’d either incite unwanted attention or run the risk of being recognized by the eye-patch ghoul. She knew him, knew his name was Kaneki, and that he was terrifyingly powerful. But he didn’t know her, not anymore.

  
They arrived at the lab and made their way onto the roof, they split into two groups here, and entered through two different air ducts. And apparently just as to plan, Kaneki made his way in a different direction. Everything was going according to their plan as they dropped down into a room, one by one, when a pair of security guards rounded the corner. All hell broke loose. Unorganized blood splatter, and one casualty. She threw one knife through the whole of it, and it struck the guard who tried to flee. She briefly wondered why they’d been assigned as a group, the disorganization had already lead to one death, the lead of the group apparently. Suddenly the remaining two members were staring at her.

  
“What?” she barked out.  
“What do we do now?” the blonde girl of the pair asked.  
“I don’t know. Go find Kaneki and ask him.” The blonde girl removed a small black mask from her face at the use of his name.  
“What? Where are you going?”  
“Not your concern.” she snapped. She was going to carry out the rest of her plan, without these two. Before either of them could say another word, she jumped past them down the hallway and up into a different air vent. She lay unmoving for a moment, as footsteps hurdled beneath her, followed by silence. Very slowly she maneuvered her body through the vents curves, her intention was to reach the far left wing of the level and work her way down from there. She knew where she was held was far below the surface level, but that was about it. The assasination was to take place in the right wing of the centre, so to keep far from there would put her out of the way of the remaining team members.

  
She dropped down from the vent, the moment her feet touched the ground she heard footsteps of what she assumed would be a guard. Her goal wasn’t to harm anyone here, not yet. She rounded the nearest corner fast and found herself ramming into the solid back of another person.  
“Ow” she yelped as she landed flat on her butt. Immediately she grasped for the knife she kept at her ankle, wrapped in the purple bandages, they served a purpose.

  
“What the hell?” A familiar voice rang out above her, Kaneki. She jumped to her feet, twisting around, the guard was coming. Before another word could be spoken, she threw her knife at him, it delved into his chest knocking him to the floor. Blood began to pool around him as she rushed forward to grab the knife. She attempted to rush past Kaneki, as he grabbed her arm hard.  
“What are you doing?”  
“Let go.”  
“The Red Golem, that’s what they call you right?”  
Silence, only a slight nod.

  
“What are you doing?” he asked again, harsher. She twisted her arm, enough to hear a snap and he let go. She took off running. The pain that rushed through her arm was short lived as it began to heal. She could hear him running after her. And then a red flash swam past her face, plastering a cut there. Turning on her heal she grasped at another knife and threw it at him, she missed except not really. She didn’t want to hurt him, despite the fact that he had no issue in harming her.  
“I said stop!” He shouted. She ignored him, pushing through another door. And rushing down a set of stairs.

She couldn’t hear him anymore as she reached the bottom, and kicked through one final door. She bowled onto the scene of the lab, the lab she was kept in. Fear flashed through her body as she stumbled forward. She hadn’t expected the fear to overtake her limbs like it had, she hadn’t expected the fear to be anything more than a passing thought. It was an emotion she’d thought she’d gotten rid of years ago, only noticing small nips of it in the corners of her mind here and there. Her eyes scanned the room, it was no different. The same tables with tubes and vials, the same switches along the wall. The same barrels of fluid, and the same table with straps along the sides in the center.

She walked over to the table, picking up the leather, yanking it swiftly to hear the satisfying snap. So simple to break, yet nearly impossible when on strength inhibitors. A strangled scream fell present in the room, breaking it’s sterile field. To her surprise it had escaped from her lips, it was however not a sound foreign to this room.

  
“Back so soon?” A thick voice filled her ears. The urge to vomit nearly took her over as a man in a white coat rounded the corner. His eyes traced over her figure menacingly.  
“You.” She whispered.  
“Tell me, how have you been?” She grasped a knife from her wrist and rushed forward, pushing the tip towards his heart.  
“Such a greeting” he smirked.  
“You really are stupid if you think you’re leaving here alive.” she hissed.  
“Tell me, why have you returned?” He questioned, ignoring her comment as he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She flinched, and trembled with the knife. Even after all the effort she’d put in distancing herself from feeling anything, she felt the fear consuming her.  
“I want an answer.” She stated shortly, trying to keep her voice from wavering.  
“Oh not this old question again. Why? Why you?” she didn’t nod, nor speak. Her lip simply quirked up.  
“I don’t have an answer you’d want.”  
“Tell me, tell me why you picked me, out of all the other ghouls that you could have chosen why me, why didn’t you just kill me?” she was losing it, she could hear the cracks forming in her voice, breaking apart her resolve.  
“No other reason than availability.”

  
“Why did you let me go?” She whispered. It was true, after all the time she’d spent here, when he was done with her, he’d let her leave.  
“Because, an artist does not destroy their work do they? You are my master weapon, but that does not mean I would never kill you.” He said, a glint in his eyes. And that’s when she felt it, a sharp pain emanated from her stomach. Even after all of the training she’d been through, all of the jobs she’d taken as an assassin, she’d still missed the blade in his hand that he’d just plunged into her stomach.

She stumbled back, the formation of tears began to streak from her face. He was laughing at her, a cold, low, rumbling laugh. She could feel a hand on her back pushing her up. Was this her resolve? She couldn’t stop, not yet. What was once her kagune released a tendril that wrapped around her arm, forming a sharp edge. She charged forward, and for a moment she recognized fear Dr.'s eyes. She dragged the knife down his chest, raising her hand above her head and bringing it down hard into his heart. She watched as the light behind his eyes faded, and her dagger disintegrated between her fingers. She stumbled back and again felt the hand upon her back, and then another hand on her shoulder. She could feel the warmth of liquid seeping through her jumper and splattering on the floor. Her view was becoming very fuzzy as white hair appeared over her, and then she shut her eyes.

Kaneki had been following the plan, the real plan. The scientist who ran the labs in the basement had to be killed, the rest of the group was to take out the investors, and not to know about the Dr. It was a delicate situation, and he couldn’t risk losing out on the opportunity to kill him. The shock he felt at seeing the Red Golem broke him from thought. She’d run straight into his back and fallen. He could see the panic in her eyes, it looked forgein on her. And then she’d killed the guard before taking off again. He knew trying to force answers out of her would get him nowhere but he couldn’t help it. He’d chased after her, but he’d realized she was heading in the same direction he’d been. She was going into the lab, after the Dr. He stopped pursuing her, and took the direction he’d initially intended. If the Dr. were to make and escape he’d be going this way, although that was highly unlikely with the reputation of The Red Golem. But what was her business with him? Just like everybody else in the area, Kaneki had heard of the ghoul who’d been held in the facilities for a year and tortured to the point of becoming something else. He’d also heard that The Red Golem was not human, or ghoul.

  
He opened the door to a shocking site, The Red Golem standing with a knife at the Dr.’s heart, questioning him. So she was the ghoul who’d been held here. He shouldn’t have cared, but the desperation in her voice reminded him of an old friend trying to negotiate. Before he had time to register what was happening, the Dr. had plunged a knife deep into The Red Golem forcing her to stumble back, she’d have fallen if he hadn’t taken several steps to push her upright. And then he saw it, the darkness that caressed her arm and formed into a blade at her hand. It looked like a kagune, almost, but not quite. It as altered, distorted, manufactured. His eyes widened as he watched the scene unfold, and she began to stumble back. Kaneki grasped at her back, placing a hand on her shoulder to help her to the ground. Blood seeped from the wound in her stomach. The Dr. was dead, he could leave her here, and gather the rest of the team, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t abandon this girl here, she wasn’t human or ghoul, just like him a few years ago. She’d lost consciousness, as he lifted her up and took off through the maze of the lab.

 

He’d heard of a woman in the slums of the city who used to be a nurse. She’d adapted her skill set to help ghouls and humans on the brink of society alike. A few of the ghouls around his group had been to her before, it was the only reason he knew where to find her. Kaneki's pondered taking her back to his base, but she wasn’t really a ghoul, there’d be too many questions.

  
Sneaking an injured hybrid into the slums of Tokyo was no easy task, the trail of blood alone was enough to attract trouble, but somehow he managed. He arrived at a house that seemed to have been put together through hope that it wouldn’t fall apart. A small wooden sign sat propped against the wall, with a poorly painted red cross. He knocked. A shuffle of footsteps, and the door creaked.

  
“Please, she’s bleeding out.” He said pointedly. He could see the woman's eyes through the crack, they grew wide as she whispered a name he didn’t quite catch. She retched open the door ushering him inside.  
“Over here, over here!” she gestured frantically at a table in the kitchen. He placed her gently down, as the woman who was a great deal older than he’d anticipated, got to work. She tore at the already shredded cloth at her middle, it was soaked with blood making it an even deeper red. He could hear the woman mumble under her breath, catching the phrase “not her again.”  
“Do you know her?” Kaneki found himself asking.  
“Yes.” She replied heatedly. She was mad, but not at him. She appeared to be angry with the bleeding Red Golem beneath her.  
“Who is she?”  
“If you’re so curious take off her mask. I warned her the last time she showed up here that if she did again I wouldn’t cover for her. She’s too young to be throwing her life away like this.”  
“Is she the ghoul who was tortured in the lab for a year?” He couldn’t quite pinpoint the source of his curiosity, but he found himself captivated, yet he’d made no move towards her mask.  
“She is. Not for a year though, only 6 months. Then they ripped out her kagune and implanted whatever you want to call that” she motioned to the darkness that had dripped down The Red Golem’s arm, “And then they gave her the opportunity to leave, but she didn’t take it. Nobody was looking for her anyways so she stayed and learned how to control it. Then she left  
“What a waste” she muttered again.  
Kaneki had to admit he was rather surprised that she was so forthcoming with information, and he continued to prod on.  
“Nobody was looking for her?”  
“That’s what she told me. That’s what she told her boss, and so far that’s held true. Either help or leave eye-patch.” He glanced at the door before walking over to her side. Brushing The Red Golem’s hair from her wound.

  
“Take off her mask, she can’t breathe as well with it on.” he hesitated. The pitch black hair, the sound of frustration in her voice even when in fear, it was familiar. She’d thrown a knife at him, and missed, only she hadn’t missed at all, if she’d really been trying to hit him she would have. And her eyes, he knew them, he hadn’t known them before but know that he thought of them, they matched with a very familiar face. One he hadn’t seen in over 3 years, one that he’d searched for a year before hearing she’d run away.

  
He removed her mask, revealing lips curled in pain, she wasn’t completely unconscious, Touka wasn’t completely unconscious.

“She talked about you, you know.” The old nurse’s name was Suki. He’d helped her stop the bleeding and bandage Touka, who now lay in the next room asleep. Touka, how had he not seen it before?  
“Mostly memories about working at a cafe. I think I was the only person she spoke to like that the past few years. You know, they told her she was a weapon in that lab and that’s all she sees herself as. A weapon.”  
“She does?” Kaneki felt stunned, a sense of betrayal as well. Why hadn’t she come back when they’d offered to let her go, why did let herself become this?  
As if she could read his mind, Suki spoke again before dissolving into her own silence, “They told her over and over and over there that no one was looking for her, imagine being told for six month straight that no one was searching for you, and as far as the evidence you have access too suggests, nobody is. As much as she tries to hide it, she’s still a 21 year old woman with the same emotions, just a lot more pain and a lot more power to be responsible for. She’s pretty similar to you.”  
They sat in silence. The mission was long since over by now, and Kaneki was sure that they’d begun searching for them. Him because he was apart of the leading group, and Touka because she was an asset to that association of assassins. No, they wouldn’t be going back yet, there were too many unanswered questions.

 

Touka woke up the following day, and remembered nothing after the white hair above her face. The same white hair above her she woke up too. In an instant a dagger formed in her hand, and she sat up swinging it. Strong arms stopped her and she dropped the manufactured weapon into a pool of darkness.  
“Stop Touka, you’ll injure yourself again.” Kaneki said calmly. She froze, her free hand traveling up to her face, her mask wasn’t there. Tears sprang to her eyes as she wrenched her hand free to cover her face.  
“No, no what are you doing here?” She sobbed. She'd so carefully kept her identity out of her work, and now the one person she’d wanted to keep away from, was here. She didn’t want him involved, because if he was involved, so were each and every emotion she wanted to get rid of.  
“I brought you here,” he paused before continuing, “Why didn’t you tell me?”. He spoke gently, he understood the pain she’d experienced, but not wholly, she’d experienced so much more.

  
“How could I?” She raised her eyes to meet his, his face looked the same as the last time she’d seen it, only it held a different expression. One of pained confidence, maybe the two were connected, she couldn’t quite tell through her own blur of tears.  
“I looked for you, I know you think otherwise, but I did. Up until I was told you’d moved on from Tokyo, I didn’t want to believe that but I couldn’t find any trace of you.” His voice broke ever so slightly, but she noticed.  
“You should go.” She whispered.  
“What?”  
“You should go.” She said louder. All of the emotions she’d been burying for so long were bubbling up to the surface like spring water, and they were pouring out onto her face. She didn’t want to feel any of this. She felt a sudden warmth and pressure around her shoulders as Kaneki wrapped his arms around her. Shocked she held still for a moment, she tried to pull back for a moment before raising her arms to wrap around him as well. It had been so long since Touka had felt anything close to resembling the emotions that swirled around before her, everything she felt for Kaneki rose to her lips as tears continued to plummet from her eyes.

  
“Please don’t go.” She said, her resolve returning.  
“I won’t without you.” He promised. He meant it. He loved Touka, he had for a long time and her disappearance had haunted him, he’d felt selfish wishing her to be with him, but relieved when he’d thought she’d run away, because if she was out of Tokyo that at least meant she was out of harm's way here. But she’d been here the whole time. Fighting, suffering, trading places with what he’d felt when he’d first met her.

  
“I love you.” She whispered, quietly enough that she’d thought he wouldn’t hear. Kaneki leaned back, white hair falling into his eyes as he stared into hers. She’d changed, but she was still Touka, still the same girl who fought with so much passion over the ones she’d loved. He leaned forward again, this time connecting his lip with hers. She was stunned, and then she kissed him back, hard and with an intensity suggesting he’s vanish before their lips had separated again. She pulled back from the moment first, as hands traveled to wrap in hair.  
“I love you too.” He said in a low and husky voice.  
“Get a room” came Suki’s voice from the corner.


End file.
